WEEKLY WRAP-UP
(How do you guys like that all-caps title? Looks important, no?)
Ok, here’s the deal. I’ve got a post percolating in me re: being with my dad and family over Thanksgiving, but apparently I’m still processing it all– just isn’t ready to come out yet, I guess. So I decided to do a quickie review of some of the more noteworthy moments of the past week and invite you to do the same, because you guys know I’m like a big ol’ voyeur, right? Other people’s lives are endlessly fascinating to me, which is either the true hallmark of a writer OR a character defect, you decide.
At any rate, here’s a round-up of highlights from Chez Taff this week:
***** We stayed over an extra day in Arkansas to be with Daddy and my family, coming home on Monday instead of Sunday. I love having all of my siblings together at the same time so very much. We are a smart-mouthed bunch, and I literally laugh until I cry at least once a day. My favorite moment this holiday had to be when my brother Joel (remember those pictures last year of the brother that lugged his own fancy coffee bean roaster AND his own fancy selection of coffee beans from some remote mountain village in Guatemala/some remote women’s cooperative coffee farm in Africa all the way from LA? Yeah, that guy.) accidently ate an entire mouthful of dry dog food that *I* lugged all the way from Nashville! OK, granted it was late at night, and it was kinda dark in the kitchen… {I swear, I almost wet my pants just now reliving that loud crunching sound followed by Joel’s voice quietly saying, “Did. I. Just. Eat. DOGFOOD??” BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!} The best comment came from my brother Matt the next day when he casually asked Joel, “So, at exactly what point did your famous gourmet palate recognize the fact that what you were eating was indeed, NOT pistachio nuts…?”
***** Picking Madi up from school and having her tell me once again how very much she loves her new-this-year school. Thank God. Parents never get tired of hearing that kind of stuff.
***** Meeting Pastor David and Nicole Crank, from St. Louis was definitely a high point this week. Russ hosted a TBN Christmas music show that taped Tuesday, and he invited David to be one of his guests (also had Mike English and Wes Hampton– think it airs Dec. 11.) Several months ago Nicole had Russ flown in to surprise David at his 40th birthday party, and apparently it was a giant lovefest at first sight which is not really all that surprising since David and Nicole are also good friends with our friends-and-pastors Danny and Jillian Chambers. Anyway, David, Nicole and I all been following each other on Twitter ever since, and we planned on having dinner together Wednesday night because David was preaching at our church later that evening. Due to a navigational glitch that David blamed entirely on his GPS, Russ and I ate alone until the dessert course, but David graciously and unexpectedly insisted on picking up the tab anyway, which you gotta love in a preacher, right? We did manage enough time together for me to totally develop a crush on both of them, and David’s sermon at Oasis was great fun– should be showing up on Oasis podcast schedule soon, watch for it. And yes, the irony of the fact that many of the favorite people in my life these days also happen to be PREACHERS is not lost on me, either.
***** Delivered a gorgeous live wreath next door to say ‘thank you’ to my sweet neighbor Joyce, who not only came over every day and loved up on two of our dogs while we were out of town (we took Pip to Arkansas with us for Thanksgiving, but left Phoebe and Thea here– those girls can get kinda rowdy and I was a little concerned about the fact that with a houseful of people to fire them up they might make Daddy trip) but also showed up early on the morning we left in her fuzzy pink bathrobe bearing a hot pan of homemade cornbread dressing AND another one full of fragrant, savory whole caramelized onions AND a gorgeous holiday candle– all for me to take home to Mom and Dad. Seriously, how nice is that?
***** Every time I pull into my driveway and look up and see this:
HUZZAH, HUZZAH! WE HAVE A NEW ROOF!
This is a big hairy deal because the old one was reeeeeeally looking ratty– kind of dalmation-ish, because it kept losing shingles and then we would have it patched and then we would have a storm and it would lose some more shingles, blah blah blah. FYI, here’s an interesting bit of trivia: roofs are expensive, ya’ll! But the enterprising guys at Fessler Home Improvements not only left their card in my mailbox (as did about 30 other companies) BUT followed through with dealing with our insurance company and helping us wade through the paperwork until voila! New roof, that cost us nothing but the deductible. I fully expect to start receiving anonymous thank-you notes from every person who had to drive past our house this last year. We are now no longer the White Trash Neighbors, at least as far as roofs are concerned. (And yes, I do realize our gutters need painting. Baby-steps, people.)
***** The Gaither Homecoming Christmas concert was in Nashville last night at the Sommet Center and I had about as much fun as the law allows. The girls and I went over early to have dinner with everybody backstage, and over the course of the evening I saw about a frillion people I have not seen in decades– specifically fellow artists who live in town but we never cross paths with anymore, and people who worked at Word during the decades that Russ was signed with them, which was wonderful. I also got to hug and kiss a bunch of Homecoming artists’ kids and family members that I don’t see often enough and admire the latest crop of babies– dang, they are a fertile bunch (yes, I’m looking at YOU, Wes and Andrea Hampton.) And to top it off, Danny and Jillian were able to be there for the second half of the concert and I thoroughly enjoyed being able to flaunt the fact that we did indeed know people who were not afraid to be called our pastors in public. I also repeatedly acknowledged that yes, shepherding the Taff family obviously requires a pastoral tag-team– because if I didn’t point that out, doubtlessly someone else would have. Anyway, the whole thing was fabulous, even if we did manage to somehow misplace Charlotte when it was all over and we were about to leave. After a frantic fifteen minutes during which I became hyper-aware of just how many arena dock workers look disturbingly like carny-folk, and just how many dark corners and corridors there are deep in the bowels of the Sommet, we located her right before poor Russ completely freaked out and issued an Amber Alert. She was safely waaaaaaay upstairs at Lynda Randle’s booth hanging out with Joy. Thank God for security people with walkie-talkies. Charlotte was horrified that she had scared us so, and apologized all the way home, bless her. The girls and I finally fell into bed around midnight, and Russ and the gang headed off to Indiana. Catch a concert if you can, you will definitely walk out feeling Christmas-y.
OK, that’s the Week in Review at the ‘bloomr! So… tell me the highlights of yours!
